Israel at once discriminates against Palestinian citizens of the state while trotting out their limited “rights” as proof positive of our “vibrant democracy.” Ben White’s latest book, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination, and Democracy, is a response to this farce.
Palestinians in Israel is a short but compelling read that teases out the tensions inherent in a “Jewish and democratic” state by revealing the multitude of ways Israel has historically treated and continues to treat its Palestinian minority as second-class citizens.
In the first chapter–which is titled “Jewish and Democratic?”, revealing one of the central themes of the book–White writes:
The 2009 budget for religious services and religious institutions for the Jewish population was approximately $390 million. Religious minorities, which constituted slightly more than 20 percent of the population, received approximately $14.2 million, or less than 4 percent of total funding.
White also points out, “…for each Jewish student, schools have a budget of around US$ 1,100 a year. For each Palestinian child, however, the figure was just US$ 191: almost six times smaller.”
The book also includes bits of history that escape the attention of the media, which often neglects to ground current events in their broader context, such as the fact that Palestinian citizens of the state lived under a military regime until 1966 and that this same military regime continued to expel Palestinians long after the 1948 war had ended. “At least 2,000 Palestinians were ‘transferred’ to Gaza in 1950,” White writes, “while according to a Foreign Ministry report, during 1949-53 Israel expelled almost 17,000 Bedouin Palestinians from the Negev.” Most journalists depict the demolitions of Bedouin homes as a relatively new phenomenon, but White points out that more than 500 Bedouin homes were destroyed between June 1988 and May 1990; over 2000 were demolished from 1993 to 1996; and more than 600 between 2001 and 2008. The chapter titled “Land Regime” is an extensive discussion of how Palestinians’ dispossession continued long after the nakba and, indeed, continues today.
Ben White’s Palestinians in Israel (courtesy of the author)
Palestinians in Israel is a must read for anyone who is unfamiliar with the systematic and institutionalized discrimination that Palestinians face inside of Israel. For those already familiar with the subject, White’s book helps reframe the issue of Palestinian rights by using their lack thereof as a premise to question whether or not Israel is, indeed, a democracy—a question that is gaining traction both inside of Israel and abroad.
The arguments White makes here are so deeply researched that they are almost unassailable. Which is why, I suppose, detractors had to resort to name-calling. White faced accusations of anti-Semitism after this book came out. Having read it, I didn’t see any grounds for the charge. What I did see, however, was a lot of uncomfortable truths that Israeli Jews and those who support the Zionist project—as Interior Minister Eli Yishai likes to call it—must face.
But, as is often the case in life and art, in its strength lies its weakness. All the research, for me, turned out to be a bit of a double-edged sword. Palestinians in Israel is so grounded in reports from various NGOs and experts and journalists and facts and numbers that it sometimes loses sight of the issue at hand—namely, the Palestinians in Israel.
White has spent a significant amount of time in Israel/Palestine and has strong ties to the Palestinian community. So I found myself wondering why there was so little original reporting in this book. There are only a handful of interviews included and most are culled from other resources. That’s not to say that the personal stories of Palestinian citizens of Israel should have replaced the research White included. Rather, they would have helped to illustrate White’s points, making them more vivid and memorable, breathing life into what is, now, a decidedly academic text. An excellent example of a book that blends a tremendous amount of research with extensive, original reporting is Arthur Neslen’s In Your Eyes a Sandstorm: Ways of Being Palestinian.
It’s a question of balance and Palestinians in Israel is at its best when White offers his own analysis rather than quoting others, when he uses his skills as a sensitive interviewer who knows the issues and cares about the people who struggle with them. The short interview with Janan Abdu, wife of Palestinian political prisoner Ameer Makhoul, for example, seared my eyes. She speaks to White so earnestly about the difficulties she and her daughters face without their husband and father.
My qualm is small, however, and it’s partly a matter of personal taste. But, to argue against myself, the statistics about discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel are already out there and yet the world still sits on its hands. Maybe it’s moments like the one that the reader gets to share with Abdu—delivered by White’s steady, able hand—that have the potential to affect real change.
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Jehudah Ben-Israel
Israel is a nation-state, it is the nation-state of a people, of the Jewish people. In this sense, Israel is akin to Denmark, Norway, Greece, Poland, Ireland, Portugal and countless additional nation states in which the predominant culture determines the characteristics of the country, e.g. name, official language, symbols of state, official holidays, etc.
The common use in reference to Israel as a “Jewish state” is simply a short for the “nation-state of the Jewish people”.
Israel, also as most nation-states, is a liberal democracy in which all citizens are equal before the law: blacks and whites, women and men, religious and secular, Arab and Jew, short people and tall people. All have the right to elect and be elected to the local, regional and state legislative governmental bodies. And, all are found acting in all branches of government: legislative, administrative and judicial.
Furthermore, all citizens in Israel are found in all aspects of Israel’s social, economic, and military life. And, all participate in the very dynamic civil society found in Israel.
It is perhaps time for critics of Israel to learn about Israeli society before being critical, and to compare Israeli society to the countries that surround it, as well as to other liberal democracies, worldwide, unless of course the intent is to be critical of everything Israel, regardless of reality…
Jack
Interesting book, its good the discrimination gets documented and summarized.
-
Jehudah,
Western states are secular and isnt biased toward any ethnicity specifically, thats a difference from Israel which is as you say a “jewish state”. Western states are also mutlicultural, Israel is on the other side is a homogenic, ethnocentric state. Nation-state and nationalistic ideas is also a thing of the past.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
“Nation-state and nationalistic ideas is also a thing of the past”.
Ask the people of former Yugoslavia, the people of Poland, the people of the Baltic countries. Indeed, ask the citizens of most European countries whether or not nation-states is a thing of the past.
Israel is simply the national home of a people – like China of the Chinese, like Japan of the Japanese – one with an ancient civilization, Judaism, that we, Jews, insist on preserving within our own national home; not an unheard of need of a people, of course.
Mohammed Amin
I have not read the book and therefore cannot comment on it. However I do have a response to Jehuda Ben-Israel’s comment of 4.07am.
I believe in an Israel for all Israelis, not just an Israel for the benefit of the 75% of its population who happen to be Jewish. My views are set out at more length in my piece http://www.mohammedamin.com/Middle-East/An-Israel-for-all-Israelis.html
Mukmak
about nation states:
It is true that many countries world wide are de-facto nations just because, for historical reasons , one specific ethnic group forms a super-majority in the area. However, most of the countries mentioned do not have a history of another modern people having a significant claim to the land, neither can it be said the the current ruling “nation” lived in the land in relatively small numbers for almost the past 2000 years, until a massive way of immigration in the last 130. Those that do have a multi-ethnic heritage have resolved this much more democratically. Belgium, for example, is a bi-national state, divided politically in Flanders (Dutch speaking), Wallonia (French speaking) and Brussels, the capital. Switzerland includes speakers of German, French, Italian, and Romansh, yet they all live in one state. Yugoslavia admittedly has been a problem, complicated by the fact that ethnic groups do not exactly live on easy to make borders, hence the division of Bosnia into two autonomous entities between Serbs and Bosniaks. However, all these example very different from Israel. Zionists came in the early 20th century into a Palestinians majority land, determined to make it into a Jewish ethnic state. As a result, many Palestinians have since had to abandon their homes and villages in 1948, and the occupation of the West Bank denies the Palestinians any meaningful autonomy. No people has a right to an ethnic state in a land where they’re not the only ethnic group with a reasonable claim, and Israel’s desire to be a “Jewish and democratic” state can only by realized by ignoring Palestinian rights to return to their homeland.
Jogortha
Dear Jehudah, on learning about Israeli society, what was that business in south TLV with black people?
rakiba
White was accused of anti-semitism because of his tweets. A simple google will pull them up and you can decide for yourself.
Certainly not all criticism of Israel is anti-semitic, in fact lets say most is not, but some anti-semites hide behind attacks on Israel and Zionists and some in fact use this dismissal as a shield.
I suspect Ben White does hold some anti-Jewish feelings and a double standard.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
“I believe in an Israel for all Israelis”.
I, on the other hand, don’t believe. I rather rationally support and happily can report that Israel is indeed a liberal democratic state in which each and every citizen is equal before the law.
What Israel is not is a bi-national or multi-national state. The international community, when it assigned western Palestine/Eretz Israel – located between the Jordan River and the Med. Sea – to the Jewish people, it did so in order to set up there “the national home for the Jewish people”, a concept that is etched into international law. And, of course, it is part and parcel of the legal system in Israel, it being, by the choice of its citizens, the nation-state of the Jewish people.
It is legitimate not to like the idea of nation-states. But, why single out the Jewish people of all peoples and demand only of it to deny itself that which is universally accepted right: the right of national self-determination and independence….??
Adam
“Western states are also mutlicultural, Israel is on the other side is a homogenic, ethnocentric state.”
Jack– Of all your ignorant statements about Israel, this one gets first prize. Israel is one of the most multicultural societies in the world. The Jewish majority in Israel include citizens from Ethiopia, North Africa, Eastern Europe, each group adding their own cultures and traditions to the social mix. The population also includes Israeli Arab citizens. No one disputes that Israeli Arabs are second class citizens, or that tensions exist between Jewish citizens from different backgrounds and traditions. They key question raised by White’s book, and the review of it, is whether Israel is not a democracy because some its citizens have second class status. The question itself, however, reveals the double-standard at the heart of White’s book and so many other obsessively anti-Israel critics. All democracies have second class citizens, but their status as democracies are never questioned. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for an Oxbridge educated Brit to write a book arguing that France is not a democracy because the Muslim population of the country are treated like second class citizens. Even during the Jim Crow era in the US, no one ever argued about whether or not not the US was democracy. The question is only applied to Israel, and is just one of many examples of how Israel is held to a moral double standard.
William Burns
Nothing is more indicative of the sheer dumbness of most internet Zionists than rhetorical questions like “But, why single out the Jewish people of all peoples and demand only of it to deny itself that which is universally accepted right: the right of national self-determination and independence….??” A moment’s thought reveals that the right of national self-determination is denied to Kurds, Tibetans, Palestinians and numerous other peoples. The dissolution of South African apartheid required the denial of the right of self-determination to Afrikaners. No one actually treats national self-determination as an absolute, least of all Zionists, who are quite happy denying it to Palestinians.
As for the glories of the nation-state, it is possible to think nation states are fine in relatively homogenous societies (like Japan) but don’t work in societies with 20% populations of unassimilable minorities.
Jack
Jehudah,
In these modern times, nation-states are of the past of the reason I mentioned, namely world is now globalized and cultures are spread from place to place. Nationalistic views and policies nor, are positive as we have seen in the past causing alot of trouble.
Jack
Adam,
That isnt multicultural, that is a ethnocentric society where peoples ethnicity/religion is what matters.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
“Kurds, Tibetans, Palestinians…” are all entitled to the universally accepted right of national self-determination and independence, just as the Jewish people is entitled to this universally accepted right of all peoples.
Fortunately, the Kurds are, de facto, setting up their nation-state in northern Iraq.
The Tibetans, sadly, not yet.
And the Palestinian Arabs have been handed over 77% of Palestine in which to set up their state, located east of the Jordan River, while at the same historic period the Jewish people was assigned the rest of the country, only 23% of it, located between the Jordan River and the Med. Sea where it may set up its nation-state.
Adam
@Jack: “That isnt multicultural, that is a ethnocentric society where peoples ethnicity/religion is what matters.” Then that means Israel is no different than France, where French ethnicity and culture is such a powerful force. Getting into an argument over terms like “multicultural” is a zero-sum game. The fact of the matter is that Israel is a multi-racial society with a cultural gumbo of different traditions. Democracies are paradoxical and protean. Yes, Israel is a Jewish state, but it’s also one of the culturally diverse countries in the world.
Jack
Adam,
Well then uou dont know what multicultural means today. Its like saying Saudiarabia is multicultural, with the argument that they accept every muslim to come to live in their state and become a citizen.
William Burns
Look, Jehudah, there’s only so much time I want to waste on the internet arguing with fools, but if you say that every ethnic group deserves a nation state, you’ve just declared that every country in the world has illegitimate borders. Self-determination for the Ainu, for the Bretons, for the Scottish highlanders? And let’s not even think about Africa. And what about the non-Palestinian Jordanians whose rights to self-determination you have so blithely tossed aside?
Adam
@William Burns:” No one actually treats national self-determination as an absolute, least of all Zionists, who are quite happy denying it to Palestinians.” Talk about “sheer dumbness”! I’m a Zionist and I believe in Palestinian self-determination; I’m deeply saddened by plight of the Palestinians. I’m sure some Zionists don’t believe in Palestinian self-determination, but the vast majority do. The “sheer dumbness” of Burns’ comment arises from the fact that he uses the term “Zionist” as an all-purpose pejorative, like “racist” or “fascist,” thereby effacing the word “Zionist” of its true meaning.
Adam
“Well then uou dont know what multicultural means today” Okay, Jack, I don’t know what multi-cultural means. But I do know that Israel is a racially and culturally diverse country.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
“…but if you say that every ethnic group deserves a nation state…” — No, I didn’t even mention the term “ethnic”. I rather refer to peoples.
“…non-Palestinian Jordanians…” — An academic Palestinian recently noted, correctly, that the only non-Palestinian in Jordan is the King and his family, a clan that originated from the Hijjaz, presently in Saudi Arabia.
These are the some of the facts of life. But, of course, the poster is welcome to act based on wishful thinking and “narratives”, i.e. fictional short stories designed for political expediency.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
“But I do know that Israel is a racially and culturally diverse country”.
Only he who is totally ignorant of Israel and its society would object to this on the mark observation.
William Burns
Why do you refuse to support self-determination for the Iroquois, Jehudah?
Prometheus
“Its like saying Saudiarabia is multicultural, with the argument that they accept every muslim to come to live in their state and become a citizen.”
.
But Saudi Arabia accept no-one to became their citizen, only through marriage.
You analogy is even more irrelevant than usual.
Aaron
In any democracy the goodies get handed out unequally, with the powerful groups getting more than their fair share. So those inequalities are not an argument against Israel’s so-called democratic nature.
“Democracy” means almost nothing nowadays: which states today proudly describe themselves as anti-democratic? But if the concept has any meaning at all today, I think that Israel is or is not a democracy to about the same degree that the US was or was not a democracy before, say, 1965; or I’d even grant you 1865, for the sake of argument.
One question that doesn’t get asked: Given that Israel is not a (universal) democracy, how do we use that in our propaganda, whether pro- or anti-Zionist? The anti-Zionist answer is obvious: Keep pointing that out, especially to Western audiences. The Zionist answer is less obvious. Here’s my suggestion: to American audiences, emphasize that Israel is *Western*; to nationalist European audiences (a minority among Europeans), do the same; to left-leaning Europeans, don’t mention democracy at all – they wouldn’t care even if they believed you – and *definitely* don’t tell them you’re Western. Try to play up Israel’s non-Western aspects instead.
Jack
Adam,
Well great that you admitted that you didnt know. One shouldt use words they dont know the definition of in debates.
Aaron
On second thought, I take back what I said just now: I don’t think Israel is comparable to the US pre-1965. Blacks in the US consented to the state; Arabs in Israel do not. So it’s really a bad comparison. Israel is not a (universal) democracy by any reasonable definition of the term.
Prometheus
Aaron – you really should check terms again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
There is no such thing as “universal democracy”
Jan
@Jehudah – No matter how you try to rationalize it and explain it away israel began as a racist state and remains a racist state. Any state that elevates one group of people in that state over another people regardless of the reason is a racist state. Any state that removed or ethnically cleansed a group of people so as to make room for its own people is a racist state.
Any state that deliberately provides one set of its citizens with more resources than other groups is a racist state.
Jehudah it is time for you to stand up and loudly and proudly proclaim that you loudly and proudly are a racist and proud to live in a racist state – even though I do believe that you live in the occupied Golan Heights where you help Israel to keep the water sources of the Golan.
Aaron
“Universal” democracy means that the democracy includes the entire population, as opposed to, for instance, ancient Athens. I probably first came across the term in Carl Schmitt, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, I don’t remember. But it’s a fairly common term. I agree with Ahmed Tibi that Israel is “a democracy for the Jews,” not a universal democracy.
I think the Democracy Index is stupid.
Jan
@Jehudah – you continually write of the “international community” handing over land for the Jewish people. What the so-called international coummunity did was a travesty of justice. They had no right to turn over the land where another people had lived for generations and hand it to another people who wanted that land.
Had there been no pressure from wealthy and important Zionists on those who decided that they did not have to consult with those who were already on the land it is likely that you would have had no “international community” sources to quote.
Kolumn9
Aaron, fine, then use the Native Americans to make your point. There was certainly no consent there.
.
Nor was there consent for the black people in crossing the oceans and settling in America.
.
You had no reason to take back what you said.
Prometheus
Jan,
“Any state that elevates one group of people in that state over another people regardless of the reason is a racist state. ”
.
In ANY multinational state there is some degree of elevation of one group of citizens over another.
I dare you to name 5 multinational states which are 100% free of any such elevations.
.
“Any state that removed or ethnically cleansed a group of people so as to make room for its own people is a racist state.”
.
You’ll be surprised how many states actually have begun by cleansing hostile population. Rather honorable company indeed. Pity you’ve missed all history lessons.
.
“Any state that deliberately provides one set of its citizens with more resources than other groups is a racist state.”
.
Name 5 multinational states where all resources are shared evenly among all groups.
.
XYZ
As a Jewish Palestinian citizen of the state of Israel, I must say I don’t feel discriminated against.
Jack
Jan,
“Any state that elevates one group of people in that state over another people regardless of the reason is a racist state. ”
-
Exactly. Apprently not everyone here have the guts to accept that South Africa were racist during the apartheid regime. With such people history is bound to repeat itself, and we see people with such attitudes right here.
weindeb
Jehudah Ben-Israel, you’re either supremely dishonest in your observations or you live in Cloud Cuckoo Land feeding solely on Hasbara propaganda. Israel is at best a putative democracy and in reality an apartheid state in continuing contravention of international law.
un2here
Jan – Just because Jehudah says “the international community” gave away what it had no right to take, does not mean this actually happened – other than in Jehudahs mind. Look no further than the Balfour declaration – the “promise” given by the British. It is only a few lines but still manages to rule out any discrimination of the Palestinian population. To say or imply otherwise is not only provocative and dishonest but also a bit naive. All actual International rulings since then are along the same lines, always condemning the activities of the Zionist.
XYZ
Jack-
Here are the first four articles of the Palestinian constitution:
——————————————
ARTICLE 1
Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation. Arab Unity is an objective which the Palestinian People shall work to achieve.
[edit] ARTICLE 2
The Palestinian People are the source of all power, which shall be exercised through the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities, based on the principle of separation of powers, and in the manner set forth in this Basic Law.
[edit] ARTICLE 3
Jerusalem is the Capital of Palestine.
[edit] ARTICLE 4
1.Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.
2.The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.
3.Arabic shall be the official language.
———————————————-
Note how the Palestinians define themselves as “Arab” to the exclusion of non-Arabs, even though non-Arabs are the majority of the population of the territory called “Palestine”.
Note how they make Arabic as the official language of Palestine, even though there are large numbers of people who speak Hebrew and other languages in the land of Palestine.
Note how they make Islam the official religion of the land of Palestine, even though a large number of the people living in the Land of Palestine are not Muslims.
Thus, we see the Palestinians are setting a racially preferential state with a theocratic exclusiveness that discriminates against non-Muslims.
How can “liberals” and “progressives” support such a state?
Jack
Xyz,
As the occupied people they of course fight to pursue a state for their own. Palestinians occupied and in the west bank is primary arab muslims, if this group were like 50% christian 50% muslims the constitution would of course have been different.
As for today, you could move as a non-muslim and non-arab to palestinian land. Compare this case to Israel.
Ali Saleh Shamkhani
Mya, this is a valuable book review. I will make sure to purchase the book and read it carefully
Ali
Adam
“On second thought, I take back what I said just now: I don’t think Israel is comparable to the US pre-1965. Blacks in the US consented to the state; Arabs in Israel do not.”
Aaron– The above statement is perplexing. Certainly blacks in the US didn’t consent to Jim Crow laws. Was consenting to state ever an option for blacks, circa 1960?
Sitch
The point is that Jewish democratic is a contradictio in terminis
A state which is Jewish and has religious courts, favouring the ultra orthodox and has no division between religion and state can never be democratic..
betz55
@jehudah- Let me wipe the tears from my eyes from laughing so hard. Your continued hasbara, usually found in Haaretz or Foreign Policy Magazine is continued comedy that no intelligent person can believe. Israel is simultaneously running three systems of government. The first is full democracy toward its Jewish citizens — ethnocracy.
The second is racial discrimination toward the Palestinian minority — creeping Jim Crowism.
And the third is occupation of the Palestinian territories with one set of laws for Palestinians and another for Jewish settlers — apartheid.
Israel, and you, are forgeting that its continued denial of freedom to the Palestinians and its continued racist, apartheid regime are the very essence of the issue. For Palestinians the list is endless and growing, particularly with each growing settlement, every home demolition, every land confiscation, every eviction and each day that passes that a brutal siege is imposed on the Gaza Strip or that Palestinian refugees are not allowed to return to their homes simply because they are not Jewish.
You gotta work with what you have. Logically and morally, if one is an Israel supporter, like you, that‘s not much.
In addition, Israel’s refusal to give the 800,000 dispossessed Palestinians the right of return is a huge thorn in its side when claiming to be a democracy. Under international law, dispossessed people are entitled to return to their land, so if Israel was a functioning democratic nation that followed international law, the majority of it’s citizens would be Arab, and they would have the right to vote. That is what we, and the dictionary, not some rogue, messianic Likudite people, call democracy.
Greg Pollock
Adam: “Even during the Jim Crow era in the US, no one ever argued about whether or not not the US was democracy.”
.
The State of Mississippi during Jim Crow had a depressed black electorate and absolutely no blacks in even moderate hierarchy points of power. The Civil Rights law of 1965 was partly designed to force implementation of the Federal Constitution’s 15 Amendment granting the vote irrespective of race.
.
There is no doubt that there is structural discrimination against non Jewish Israeli citizens. The glacial response to the death of the Nazerene 13 (or is it 12?) in 2000 was a clear measure of the real standing of such citizens. The High Court’s decision in the Citizenship Law case effectively discriminates against Israeli Palestinians on the issue of lived marriage; I consider the case Israel’s Plessey v Ferguson in the US, which locked in various forms of discrimination fo nigh 50 years. Jim Crow is essentially High Court jurisprudence now.
.
Mya,
.
The world is not going to help you. Israel has to do it itself. A Democratic Administration may slow things down a bit, but that is all.
.
Betz55,
.
Trotting out the right of return as a missile gets us nowhere. Both sides present lists of impossibilities, thinking their list more powerful than the opponents. Maybe in word wars that can be true. The reality is that Israel was unable, almost not allowed, to win its foundation war en toto. The US exterminated lots of people on its way to greatness. Israel is not going to be able to absorb all the exterior refugees, and to use this card is just a way of closing discourse.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
Two points of clarification:
(1) Israel, as noted, is indeed a liberal democratic state in which all citizens are equal before the law; all elect and are elected; and, all participate in all levels of governmental, civil society and social-economic life of the country.
(2) The Arabs in Samaria, Judea, the Jordan Valley and Gaza are governed by the Palestinian Authority – only about 50,000 of them who reside in Area C are governed by Israel – which is, by agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, an Arab autonomous area. The final status of this area and the people who are governed by the PA is to be reached through negotiations. Sadly, to date, the PLO refuses to even come to the negotiation table and talk permanent peace.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
P.S. Therefore, those of us who are eager to see a solution to the Arab Israeli conflict, rather than attempting to score propaganda points, should demand time and again of the PLO’s leadership to return to the table and begin to talk peace, to which the PLO has committed itself in writing.
Jack
Jehudah,
West bank is part of the palestinian land. Even obama have urged Israel to put a mere freeze to illegal settlements and return for talks. This has been rejected by Isrrael which evidently put expansionism before any peace and obviously before even talks.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
“West bank is part of the palestinian land”.
Indeed, “Palestine” – the name of a territory, never a nationality or a state – includes what in 1952 became to be known as the “West Bank”.
“Palestine”, however, was partitioned as early as 1921 when 77% of it was handed over to the Arabs, located east of the Jordan River. The Arabs, subsequently, renamed their part Jordan, since “Palestine” is not an Arab term.
The following years 1922, the League of Nations, assigned the rest of “Palestine” to the Jewish people to be “the national home for the Jewish people”, i.e. the Jewish people’s nation-state. Located between the Jordan River and the Med. Sea, including the “West Bank”. The Jews, subsequently, gave the place its ancient Jewish name, Israel, since “Palestine” is not a Jewish term either.
This legal act by the League of Nations, utilizing the language of the San Remo peace conference of 1920, was then adopted by the United Nations and etched into its Charter, Article 80, 1945, as an irrevocable act.
For more about this legal history see here:
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.pdf
Jack
Jehudah,
Of course its not a state, its recognized palestinian land. By UN (world), UNSC(including US), The international court, NGO, well by every instance.
Not sure why you bring up years like 1921,1922,1945 since these years have nothing to do with the legal aspects of today. With that being said Israel have no rights whatsoever to steal more land from the West bank, not only an act against international law its against the peace process of building a state for palestinians right on top of this land.
XYZ
Jack-
All kinds of people who are not Jews move to Israel. Israel has taken in Arabs as part of “family reunification”.
The Palestinians and other Arab countries who officially define themselves as “Arab” and “Muslim” are AUTOMATICALLY saying that non-Arabs and non-Muslims do not have equal status….just like Israel does in defining Israel as a Jewish. Progressives who whine about Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state WHILE IGNORING the Arab/Muslim state who do EXACTLY the same thing are simply ignorant or hypocrites.
maya
@ Jan, according to your definition a of a racist state the overwhelming majority of democracies (not to mention non-democracies) in this world fall within the category ‘racist’. It seems then that being rascist is merely the standard of the international system and does not mean much about legitiamcy or moral judgement. Maybe this is even true (that racism is merely the standard), but if this is so, then what the (…) everybody wants with Israel and why all this moralization and indignation?
Jack
Xyz,
Reunions have equally been forbidden for many years. Compared to arab states they doesnt portray itself as being western liberal democratic states as Israel does, nor do they non-muslims/arabs from moving to their state.